A Kuwaiti campaign to protect the privacy of neighborhoods

Mahmoud Kafrawi - Kuwait

The Ministry of Municipalities in Kuwait has launched an extensive campaign to evacuate unmarried people from residential areas, according to a number of procedures, including cutting off the electricity from the offending property, with the aim of preserving the privacy of residential neighborhoods inhabited by families.

The need to transfer single persons from private housing to residential areas (buildings) came after the spread of singles in rooms within houses inhabited by families, as well as the transformation of some of the buildings completely to housing for singles despite the fact that it occurred in the areas of family housing, , In addition to the severe pressure on facilities in those areas planned to accommodate specific numbers.

According to Director of the Public Relations Department in the Municipality of Kuwait, Mohammed Sanan al-Mutairi, the campaign was preceded by a preliminary survey resulted in the presence of 430 houses in the country's six provinces as a result of housing singles, which contradicts Law 125 of 1992.

Campaign slogan "Rest assured"
Al-Mutairi added that the slogan of the campaign is "reassuring" that aims to reassure the families about the nature of the demographics in the region, as well as the workers of the singles themselves, and the assertion that the law applies to everyone.

He pointed out that the State appreciates the role of expatriate workers in development and does not aim to harass them with this organizational step, which prompted the Ministry of Municipality to take parallel steps to facilitate the creation of temporary housing alternatives added to the investment accommodation in the country's governorates.

The Kuwaiti authorities allowed large companies that carry out projects in which thousands of workers to set up temporary housing cities in the workplaces, and allowed the owners of factories to allocate space within the industrial coupon for the establishment of housing for employment does not exceed 10% of the area, as well as the state planning to create four cities in the future.

Report the infringing property
The campaign, which began on July 1 and continues until the end of August, opened the way for families to report the existence of single housing in their areas, whether through social media or the hotline of the Municipality of Kuwait or through a written complaint at the Citizen Service Offices.

In its first week, the campaign received 85 reports, 339 houses were identified and 53 cases of response by landlords were reported.

According to the Director of the Department of Audit and Engineering Follow-up in the Municipality of the capital province, Yusuf al-Badali, dealing with the housing violation is through gradual procedures, from awareness to the goal of the campaign through the suspension of ads in the streets, passing by the staff of the Audit Department in the municipality to detect the infringing property and address the mabahith to investigate the status of the house And check its information.

Procedures for the residence of dissidents
Al-Badali added to Al-Jazeera.net that the previous procedures followed by placing a warning poster to ask the owner of the building to amend the situation. In the case of non-response, he will follow a week after the release of a record of the financial claims owed by the violator.

In the event of exhaustion of the previous procedures with the stay of single persons in the housing violation, the municipality is addressing the Ministry of Electricity to cut off the current from the house, a procedure that has been implemented in seventy houses so far.

According to the deputy head of the control team at the Ministry of Electricity and Water, Ahmed Al-Shammari, the ministry does not cut off the current directly, but rather starts by lifting the "electrical fuse" of the housing. If this action is taken and the owner returns without the knowledge of the ministry, The behavior is a serious breach and then the cable is cut off to separate the current.

Al-Shammari told Al-Jazeera.net that the latest action does not mean that the house will be finished again, stressing that humanitarian cases, such as patients and the elderly, are given an opportunity to change their situation by moving from pre-cut housing.